Home Critical Care April 2015 Briefing – Critical Care

April 2015 Briefing – Critical Care

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Critical Care for April 2015. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Low Health Literacy Ups Mortality Risk Post Heart Failure Admission

THURSDAY, April 30, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Patients with low health literacy hospitalized for acute heart failure have an increased mortality risk, according to a study published online April 29 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Vena Cava Retrievable Filters No Help in Pulmonary Embolism

WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with acute, symptomatic pulmonary embolism, the use of retrievable vena cava filters with anticoagulation does not offer any benefit over anticoagulation alone, according to a study published online April 28 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Physician Compensation Up for Most Specialties

TUESDAY, April 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Physician compensation has gone up for almost all specialties, according to a 2015 report published by Medscape.

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CDC: Surveillance System Can Help Reduce Health Care Injuries

TUESDAY, April 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A surveillance system for health care facilities can be used to identify and help reduce the number of preventable injuries among health care personnel, according to research published in the April 24 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Lasting Mortality Risk Increase With Hyperglycemic Crises

TUESDAY, April 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — During the first six years of follow-up, geriatric patients with diabetes have a higher mortality risk after hyperglycemic crisis episode (HCE), according to a study published in the May issue of Diabetes Care.

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Anxiety, Depression, PTSD Common After Acute Lung Injury

FRIDAY, April 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most acute lung injury (ALI) survivors have symptoms of general anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during 24 months of follow-up, according to a study published in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine.

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One in 10 AMI Patients Have Unrecognized Incident Diabetes

THURSDAY, April 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — One in 10 acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients without a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) have underlying DM, according to research published online April 21 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

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Prednisolone, Pentoxifylline Little Use in Alcoholic Hepatitis

THURSDAY, April 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Prednisolone and pentoxifylline are associated with limited and no benefits, respectively, for severe alcoholic hepatitis, according to a study published in the April 23 issue of the The New England Journal of Medicine.

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EHR Data Mining Helps With Quality Improvement

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Electronic health records (EHRs) are a valuable source of data that can be mined to help practices with quality improvement performance, according to a study published in Medical Economics.

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EHR Decision Support Ups Radiologic Test Appropriateness

TUESDAY, April 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Computerized clinical decision-support (CCDS) capabilities of electronic health records may improve appropriate use of diagnostic radiologic test ordering and reduce test use, according to a review published in the April 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Drug-Eluting Beat Bare Stents in Older Patients Undergoing PCI

TUESDAY, April 21, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For older patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), drug-eluting stents (DES) offer clinical benefit over bare metal stents (BMS), according to a study published in the May 1 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

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Wide Variation in NICU Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns

MONDAY, April 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Antibiotics appear to be overused in many neonatal intensive care units, new research suggests. The findings were published online April 20 in Pediatrics.

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Age, Creatinine, Ejection Fraction Predict Post-MI Survival

MONDAY, April 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A simple age, creatinine, and ejection fraction (ACEF) score can predict one-year mortality risk in myocardial infarction 30-day survivors who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention, according to a study published in the May 1 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

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Suboptimal Prescribing Attitudes Could Signal Personal Distress

FRIDAY, April 17, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Medical students in personal distress may be more likely to have suboptimal attitudes about self-prescribing and personal responsibility for reporting impaired colleagues, according to a study published in the April issue of Academic Medicine.

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Ethical Implications for Looking Up Applicants on Facebook

THURSDAY, April 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Looking up students on Facebook and other social networking sites (SNS) is associated with ethical concerns, according to a perspective piece published in the March issue of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education.

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Medicare Spending Down in Year One of Pioneer ACO

THURSDAY, April 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Medicare spending is down in year one of the Pioneer accountable care organization (ACO) program, according to a study published online April 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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AMA Announces End of Sustainable Growth Rate Formula

WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Recently adopted legislation has repealed the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, according to a report published by the American Medical Association (AMA).

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Survey Looks at Patient Attitudes Regarding Informed Consent

WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most U.S. adults would prefer to be asked for permission to participate in studies assessing usual medical practices, according to a study published online April 14 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Security Breaches of Health Records Up Over Past Decade

TUESDAY, April 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Breaches in data security exposed more than 29 million health records to potential criminal misuse between 2010 and 2013, according to a new study. Security breaches involving hacking have nearly doubled in recent years, rising to 8.7 percent in 2013 compared with 4.7 percent in 2010, according to the study, published as a research letter in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Placebo Response May Depend on Individual DNA

TUESDAY, April 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The strength of the placebo effect may depend on particular DNA, according to a report published online April 13 in Trends in Molecular Medicine.

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Peritoneal Drainage, Laparotomy Cuts Mortality in NEC

MONDAY, April 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), peritoneal drainage followed by laparotomy is associated with reduced mortality but increased costs compared with peritoneal drainage alone, according to a study published online April 13 in Pediatrics.

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Mortality Up With Spontaneous Bleeding After PCI

MONDAY, April 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), spontaneous bleeding is associated with increased risk of death, comparable to that associated with myocardial infarction (MI), according to a study published in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Many Doctors Haven’t Started Dealing With ICD-10 Revision

FRIDAY, April 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most physicians have barely begun to deal with issues relating to documentation associated with the transition to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), according to an article published in Medical Economics.

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Medical Debt Burden Higher in Texas, Florida

FRIDAY, April 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Significantly more adults in Florida and Texas struggle to pay medical bills or pay off medical debt over time compared with residents of New York and California, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report released Friday.

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Art Program Hones Med Students’ Visual Observation Skills

FRIDAY, April 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — An innovative interdisciplinary program, Art Rounds, is effective for improving medical and nursing students’ physical observation skills, according to a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Nursing Education.

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Almost One in 10 Readmitted After Carotid Revascularization

FRIDAY, April 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Almost one in 10 Medicare patients undergoing carotid revascularization are readmitted within 30 days, according to a study published in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Sedation Type Doesn’t Influence Diagnostic Yield in EBUS-TBNA

WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The diagnostic yield of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is not influenced by the type of sedation used, according to a study published in the April 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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Model Predicts Cardiac Death After Life Support Withdrawal

WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A new model accurately identifies potential organ donors following cardiac death in neurocritical patients removed from life support. The findings were published online March 21 in the American Journal of Transplantation.

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Limited Time Available to Review Sunshine Act Data

WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Physicians have only 45 days to review and dispute reports regarding their financial ties to drug and medical device manufacturers reported under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).

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Case Report of Food Allergy Acquired Via Blood Transfusion

TUESDAY, April 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The case of an 8-year-old Canadian boy suggests that it’s possible, but still rare, for children to develop food allergies from blood transfusions. The report was published in the April 7 issue of CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

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Med Students, Residents Rarely Perform Stethoscope Hygiene

TUESDAY, April 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Stethoscope hygiene is rarely performed by trainee physicians, according to a research letter published online April 2 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

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Targeted Body Temp Mgmt Post Cardiac Arrest May Benefit Brain

MONDAY, April 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Targeted body temperature management after cardiac arrest might help prevent or lessen brain damage, according to a study published online April 6 in JAMA Neurology.

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Nurse-Physician Collaboration Tied to Lower Infection Rates

MONDAY, April 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Collaborative relationships between nurses and physicians decrease rates of common health care-associated infections in intensive care units, according to a study published in the April issue of Critical Care Nurse.

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Statistical Model Helps Predict Neonatal Intubation Competency

MONDAY, April 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Neonatal intubation competency can be modeled using a Bayesian statistical model, according to a study published online April 6 in Pediatrics.

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Amiodarone Linked to Lowest Risk of Hospitalization in A-Fib

WEDNESDAY, April 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For younger patients with atrial fibrillation, amiodarone is associated with the lowest risk of atrial fibrillation hospitalization, while dronedarone has the greatest risk, according to a study published online March 31 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

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Outcomes No Worse for Macrolide-Resistant Pneumonia

WEDNESDAY, April 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia, macrolide-resistance is not associated with worse outcomes, according to a study published online March 25 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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